WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged for a peaceful solution to reverse coup in Niger and called on the military junta that seized power last month to ensure the security and safety of President Bazoum, his family, and incarcerated members of the government.
Blinken said in a statement that the United States joins the Economic Community of West African States in calling for the restoration of constitutional order in Niger, AFP reported.
Blinken’s statement came after the West African group ECOWAS has ordered the activation of a standby force for possible intervention against the junta. ECOWAS said it desired a peaceful restoration of democracy but all options including force were open.
He added that the United States commends the ECOWAS’s determination to explore all options for the peaceful resolution of the problem.
Blinken said that ECOWAS was playing an important role in making clear the need of a return to constitutional order, and Washington supported its leadership and work on this issue.
At a summit in Abuja, ECOWAS supported a standby military force for Niger, whose military on 26 July ousted elected president Mohamed Bazoum.
US, ECOWAS urge Bazoum’s safety
Blinken said the US and ECOWAS were united in urging the safety of Bazoum.
Niger’s Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou has said that Bazoum was being incarcerated with his wife and a son without water or electricity.
The invasion threat, though not specific, intensifies tensions in and around Niger that until the military takeover was a key of the West in the war against Islamist insurgents rampaging the Sahel region
The junta, which seized power on 26 July, had defied an 6 August deadline to quit set by ECOWAS, instead closing the country’s airspace and vowing to defend Niger against any foreign attack.
The bloc vowed to enforce sanctions, travel restrictions and freez the assets of those preventing Bazoum’s return to power.
